Choosing the best broker for trading in Russia according to my version

How to choose a broker to invest money in the stock market? Today, more than a thousand companies have a brokerage license. At the same time, the level of reliability, quality and conditions of customer service are different for everyone.

A broker is an intermediary who is a participant in trading platforms and, on behalf of a client, concludes transactions for him. It is impossible to do without it, because it is brokers who have trading positions on exchanges.

Brokerage account

Open

Why look for the best broker?

This article is dedicated to finding the best broker in Russia.
I spent several days to find out which broker is the best not only for a beginner, but for any trader. The idea to write such an article arose when I read several resources on the network on this topic and still couldn’t find the answer to who is the best. In addition, I myself am a client of several brokers in Russia, having significant amounts in brokerage accounts.

Therefore, this issue needs to be carefully considered not only by beginners, but also by experienced traders.

After all, competition among brokers forces them to constantly work on their tariffs and service. This means that a situation could easily arise when it’s time to leave one broker for another. After all, that other broker gives a more favorable offer for your trading on the stock exchange.

1. How to increase your brokerage account from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles. Description in the VKontakte group

2. How to increase your brokerage account from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles. Description in the group In the telegram channel

And by the way, if you are still looking for information about how to trade on the stock exchange without a broker, how to play on the “stock exchange” without a broker (this is how beginners usually think), then I will hasten to disappoint you. You can only trade through a broker! And under no circumstances should you play, but rather trade. This is not Russian roulette, but serious business!

So, let's go!

Is the money you transfer to the broker insured?

No. In the Russian Federation, only bank deposits worth no more than 1.4 million rubles are insured. Everything else is not insured.

But when you buy some assets through a broker, for example, stocks and bonds, they are not stored with the broker, but in the depository. That is, the broker seems to have nothing to do with them. If the brokerage firm goes bankrupt, you will simply transfer your assets to another broker.

So there's not much to worry about. Especially if you cooperate with large and reliable companies.

The importance of choosing a broker at the start

I think this article is very important for beginners. Those guys who, out of necessity or due to advertising “enticements”, became interested in trading on the stock exchange.

And just opening a brokerage account is the very first step to trading, it is not yet clear what. Before we start looking for and choosing a broker, you need to understand:

Trading on the stock exchange does not always mean profit; losses also happen. And commissions to a broker can also be considered as losses.

In general, this is a controversial issue about losses. After all, commissions to a broker can also be considered as costs of your trading, your business.

But this doesn’t change the essence! And brokerage commissions can significantly reduce your overall profit or loss. Especially if you look at these numbers by year.

This means that you must initially choose a broker with minimal commissions. And here it is important not to pursue the task in a straightforward manner, but also to consider and compare a number of other equally important parameters.

Important! And they need to be considered first, no matter how absurd it may sound!

Now you are just a newbie on the stock exchange, but in a year you will want to trade, for example, American stocks. And the broker you choose will not have access to the St. Petersburg Exchange.

So what are you going to do?

Look for another broker! Of course, it’s quite easy to leave one broker for another now, but it’s still a hassle and extra hassle.

Let's go through the brokers and choose the best one based on the parameters: price-quality. To remove the uncertainty in choosing the best broker in 2021, I will try to analyze all the major brokers according to various parameters and try to choose the same broker that is reliable and convenient for the average person.

How do brokers earn money?

They never do their work for free. If you buy or sell something on the stock or commodity markets, you will have to pay commissions. That is, a small percentage of each transaction.

Commissions must be paid for every action on the market. For example, when I buy a bond, I pay a commission to the broker. When I sell the same bond, I pay again. It's like paying for a bus ride - I pay when I go from home to the institute, and when I go home from the institute.

In the foreign exchange market, brokers work a little differently. They charge a spread for each trade. The spread only needs to be paid once – when the trade is opened. That is, if I want to buy dollars with rubles, I will have to pay a spread. And when I decide to exchange dollars back to rubles, there will be no more spread.

Brokers also take swaps. I will not go into details of swaps, I will give you only basic information. A swap is a fee for the broker moving your trade overnight. That is, today I bought euros with rubles and decided not to sell them until tomorrow. In order for the broker to keep these euros for me and not sell them at the end of the trading day, I pay him a swap.

There will be a separate article about swaps. There are a lot of interesting things there, for example, swaps can be positive, not negative. And sometimes swaps are charged to traders in triple amount, rather than in single amount.

Narrowing the circle of brokers for analysis

If you see an advertisement for a broker, you should understand that this broker is not the only one. There are so many of them now that a month is not enough to study each in detail.

Therefore, I went to the Moscow Exchange website and decided to start looking for a group of brokers for my analysis based on the question that first came to my mind:

Who are these brokers and who have the most active clients?

This is the first question that came to my mind to conduct an analysis. Specifically active clients, because clients can open a brokerage account, but not trade for various reasons.

One of which, by the way, is that the trader just stopped liking the broker.

Accordingly, it is even interesting to look at both lists. I think that just looking at these numbers you can make some kind of primitive conclusion about choosing a broker.

What do you think?

In table No. 1, from the data available on the Moscow Exchange in the public domain, I collected into one table the figures for the total number of attracted clients and active clients.

Table No. 1. Data from the Moscow Exchange website for December 2021

Active clients are those people who have made at least one transaction. And it’s easy to calculate the percentage of active clients from the total number of clients for each broker.

Even Sberbank did not have impressive numbers. See for yourself!

With him everything is clear why there are so many clients. Why be surprised, Sberbank is a state bank. All budget salaries go through this bank. And people associate it with some kind of reliability.

It is unlikely that there will be a situation with Sberbank that periodically occurs on federal channels about the bankruptcy of small banks.

I was more impressed by Tinkoff! And table No. 1 shows that the percentage of active clients is higher than that of Sber:

1. % of active users of the total number of Sberaraven 7.7
2. % of active users of the total number of Tinkoff is 10.5

Well, in positions 10 and 12 there are simply giants unknown to me in terms of the percentage of active clients. The numbers are simply not even close to Sberbank and Tinkoff.

1. % of active users of the total number of GPB Bank is 14,640
2. % of active users of the total number of Alfa Capital is 41,850

In general, the top ten brokers, or rather the 12 best brokers, together with Alfa Capital, attracted the most clients to the exchange, taking the lion's share of the market of potential traders and investors under their wing.

I would also take the Kit-Finance broker into the fight for the title of best broker. Still, his percentage of active clients is 6.0%. And further from the list I want to remove all banks that are also brokers. This means Kit-Finance automatically falls into the top ten.

Above, I looked at the data for December 2021, but according to the data as of May 1, 2021, the leaders have not changed much.

Table No. 2. Data from the Moscow Exchange website for April 2021

But this is not enough to choose a broker. Let's analyze the trading volumes of brokers. From the data on the Moscow Exchange website for April 2021, trading turnover is as follows:

Table No. 3. Comparison of brokers by trading turnover according to the Moscow Exchange

Looking at table No. 3, it is immediately evident that Sberbank is in 10th place in terms of customer turnover.

Sberbank is not such a giant as a broker.

The top three super leaders in terms of transaction value are:

1. Group of companies Region
2. FG BKS
3. Renaissance Broker LLC

Now you can decide on the top 10 brokers who lead either by the value of client transactions, or by clients attracted to the exchange, or by active clients.

So, drum roll, we announce the list.

And by the way, we try to choose those brokers who specialize in this. As practice has shown, banks have much worse customer service.

And it may even be necessary to write a separate article where we can look specifically at the brokers who carry out this activity other than their main one. And the main one is the banking sector.

Broker Finam - pros, cons, reviews

The brokerage company Finam appeared back in 1994, when the stock market in Russia was just beginning to emerge. It is the largest brokerage company, operating only in Russia. There are offices in major cities.

Finam provides access to all possible financial instruments on the stock exchange. It is possible to take out leverage at low interest rates (compared to other brokers).

Many professional traders and investors use this broker as their main one.

Finam has a convenient mobile application “Finam Trade”:

In Finam Trade you can view the chart of any instrument, be it a stock, stock index, currency, commodity, etc.:

There are many technical indicators available in the application:

When placing an order, the level and position on the chart are indicated:

You can see the order book online:

If it is not possible to carry out trading operations through the terminal, then Finam allows you to send orders via telephone. Moreover, this service is free.

The company provides free training for its clients.

Pros of broker Finam:

• Single commission for trading turnover is 0.0354% or less. As trading turnover increases, the commission decreases;
• All financial instruments are available to the investor (including American shares);
• Convenient mobile application "Finam Trade". It is worth noting that during periods of super high volatility in the market, the application continued to work fully without failures;
• For large amounts, it is possible to conclude individual tariffs. The amount must be from 1 million rubles;
• Cheap commissions for margin trading;
• There is trust management, mutual funds, training, auto-following service and your own bank;
• Excellent support that will answer all complex questions;
• Access to the over-the-counter market;
• Possibility to open an IIS;
• Free deposit and withdrawal;
• Dividends come faster than other brokers;
• There is no commission for holding depository receipts;

Minuses:

• The Finam Trade application does not contain data on the size of dividends, coupon sizes, or payment dates;
• There is no transaction history for previous days;
• The commission is calculated based on the results of the day and is not immediately displayed in the application;
• The application does not have a history of transactions for previous days;

My feedback about the broker Finam: only a positive impression. I have been working with this company since 2013. For me, this is the main broker to work with.

• Reviews about the broker Finam;

Results
Despite its disadvantages, Finam is the best broker for trading and investing. There is a convenient Finam Trade application, which works stably even during periods of high volatility on the exchange, and there is access to all exchange instruments.

Opportunity to open a brokerage account online

Brokers' offices are usually located in large cities. And now you can open a brokerage account without coming to the broker’s office if you live somewhere in a remote taiga village. This service is available from almost all major brokers.

Let's see, after all, maybe some of the brokers still have problems with remote servicing.

I went through the websites of the brokers listed above and several brokers who have problems with remote account opening are dropping out of the competition.

1. Renaissance broker
2. Univer Capital LLC
3. LLC IC “Freedom Finance”
4. Group of Companies Region

Entry and Exit Price

Most often, brokers are ready to work with clients starting from a certain investment amount. For some it is only one thousand rubles, for others - one hundred thousand, for others - as a contribution to an IIS, four hundred thousand, or even a million rubles.

Will I have to pay a commission when withdrawing money? If a broker asks for 1 percent of the money back, then it is clear that this is not the most profitable option for an investor planning to earn 5 percent with virtually no risk.

Brokerage account

Open

Availability of options, futures and other derivatives

It is no coincidence that I chose this item as the next item to filter out unnecessary brokers. And 95% of newcomers who come to the exchange believe that futures trading is very complicated and complicated. And when choosing a broker, do not consider futures or options trading at all.

All official websites of brokers talk about trading on the stock exchange as an opportunity to be an investor. Thus, clients’ understanding of other earning opportunities is narrowed.

The idea is that only by investing somewhere and something can you earn good money. So the broker wants you, dear clients, to direct your attention specifically to investing.

This is the kind of poster you will find on the website of any broker. as if investments can enrich a person.

But investing is a very serious job that gives good money for the same big good money. And an ordinary person who comes to the exchange will usually have from 100,000 to 1,000,000 rubles. This is very little for a normal return on investment.

Investment poster on the BCS broker website

But in fact, you can not invest, but calmly speculate in futures of the Derivatives Section of the Moscow Exchange. And commissions on futures are significantly lower than when trading stocks.

By the way, in my school, for kids who decided to trade futures, I give a specific example that shows such a big difference in commissions and more. And the advantages of futures trading are so obvious even in the fact that in a month you can trade only 5 days out of 20 trading days and get more than in investing.

And investing may not yield anything, not a penny, by the end of the investment period.

Therefore, I believe that the table of brokers that provide the opportunity to trade futures and other derivative assets is very appropriate for screening out narrow brokers.

From our list, which was thinned out in the previous analysis, the following brokers remain that provide the opportunity to trade futures:

1. FGS BKS
2. Opening
3. Finam
4. Alor+ LLC
5. Keith Finance
6. Aton LLC

What else to read and watch

Read my article “Can you make money from trading”. I used to believe that such earnings were possible, but now I don’t think so. In the article I have collected arguments that will help you “come to your senses” and not throw away your money.

You do not need to register with brokers to engage in trading. Register with them to invest. I talked about how to do this correctly and what to invest in in a general article about investments.

To receive more information about brokers, investments and finance in general, subscribe to my newsletter. I plan to write many more articles on these topics; subscribing will allow me to send links to new texts directly to you.

Download and read these books from the City of Investors project. They are absolutely free.

1. How to become financially independent in 1 year. About the simple steps you need to take to achieve financial freedom and independence.
2. 5 ways to effectively invest 1000+ rubles. Interesting tutorial. The author examines examples of investments for very small amounts of money, analyzes the results and gives his comments. This book will help you take your first steps in investing.
3. 6 steps to financial security. The simple steps you need to take to secure your financial future. The book is not only about investments, the author writes about money in general, earnings, etc.

I recommend you a free webinar from the same resource - “How and where to invest in 2021.” The webinar is repeated periodically, sign up for it so as not to miss the next broadcast. The teacher talks about investment tools in the context of the current market situation. The topic of choosing brokers will also be touched upon.

There are also paid materials in the City of Investors. I advise you to start with this webinar workshop - “Passive income on the machine 2021”. It lasts ten days. In ten days you will form a systematic idea of ​​how to invest money correctly.

There are also webinars on investing that take place on the Ak Bars Bank platform. You can watch them in recordings on YouTube. Here is one such entry - about an instrument called ETF. You can watch it directly from here. You can find other videos on the bank’s channel.

And one last thing. Netology has a very good course “Personal Finance and Investments”. It was probably there that I realized that there was no point in trying to make money from trading. It's a waste of time.

Now this course has been expanded, the principles of investment have been added to it, the teacher began to explain how each investment instrument works, how to make changes to your investment portfolios, how to choose the right brokers, etc. By the way, you can ask the teacher questions even after completing the training – when you move from theory to real investing.

Take note.

Possibility of replenishing a brokerage account

A very important parameter. For example, you wanted to top up your brokerage account, but the broker’s office is not in your city. Transferring money to an account using the details is such a task. Moreover, commissions must be paid to banks providing such services. And bank commissions simply stifle citizens.

In my opinion, the coolest way is to go to the office with money. I don’t take into account that we are going there on a tram with a bag of money. But it’s more reliable that they will arrive accurately and there will be no commissions.

I don't think you'll do this often. After all, everyone came to the exchange just to accelerate the initial deposit and grow it to cosmic figures. Well, maximum once a year you will report money to the brokerage account.

But I also like the service of transferring money through a mobile application from some brokers. But there will be a commission to another bank too. There is no escape from this.

I don’t see any point in opening cards from banks of the same broker that are part of the same financial group. The fewer different cards, the better.

This is approximately what I found from our brokers.

BKS

1. From a card of any bank in the “My Broker” application
2. By bank transfer using the details from any bank account
3. Through BCS cash desks
4. Free transfer from the "Broker" card in your personal account "BCS Online"

Opening

1. Transfer from a bank account
2. Transfer of funds from another professional participant in the securities market
3. Top up your account remotely using online banking
4. Top up your account remotely with any other money transfer, if you can specify bank details during the transfer

Keith Finance

1. You can deposit funds by bank transfer through any bank.

Finam

1. Cashless transfer from a bank account
2. Through the cash desk of Bank FINAM
3. Using a bank card (0% commission) from a FINAM Bank debit card
4. Using a bank card when topping up from a bank card of any third-party bank (1%)

Here, as they say, everyone has their own option. I very rarely deposit money into a brokerage account, so I prefer the option of depositing money through the broker’s cash desk in the office. This is such a strange preference I have!

Definition and types

A broker, in simple words, is an intermediary between the seller and the buyer, the lender and the borrower, the insurer and the policyholder. This list can be continued depending on the type of brokers. Translated from English, the word “broker” means intermediary.

Brokerage activity is the execution of client instructions and the performance of any actions at his expense. For example, the purchase and sale of securities, currency, registration of real estate transactions, searching for profitable offers on mortgages, etc.

A broker can be an individual or legal entity that has received a license from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The license is unlimited. On the official website of the Central Bank there is an up-to-date list of operating organizations that have a brokerage license. You should definitely check with him when choosing an intermediary. There are now more than 300 companies there: banks, brokerage platforms, investment funds, etc.

Types of brokers:

1. The exchange provides intermediary services in the securities, currency, and derivatives markets.
2. Credit - an intermediary between participants in the credit market (banks, borrowers, real estate agencies, appraisal offices, insurance companies, etc.).
3. The insurer works in the insurance market, helping to meet the insurer and the policyholder on mutually beneficial terms.
4. A type of credit is a mortgage broker. It serves the mortgage borrower.
5. Forex broker is an intermediary in the Forex market.
6. Brokerage is intermediation in the commercial real estate market.

All these varieties can be combined and called one phrase – “financial broker”. That is, it is an intermediary who works in financial markets with client funds. There is also a leasing, customs, aircraft broker, etc.

Access to foreign securities

Now I’m thinking about getting into trading on foreign exchanges. I'm just interested in comparing our dismal market with the American market. I would like to see super cool and long-term trends, etc. And now the factor that is important to me is whether the broker has access to foreign sites.

Do you understand where I'm going with this conversation? By the way, this is the argument and example I spoke at the beginning of the article. A trader grows, evolves and can expand his field of activity.

Broker Aton LLC is knocked off our list of brokers. I would like to start trading on the American market with smaller amounts of money.

Broker comparison table

Based on the criteria for choosing a broker on the stock market and a brief overview of the conditions of working with each intermediary, I compiled a comparison table. Arranged companies in alphabetical order.

Trading apps

Just a few years ago, the most popular terminal for individual investors was the QUIK platform. Many people still use it today, but broker mobile applications are becoming more and more widespread for making transactions on the stock exchange.

In an ideal situation, the client has maximum choice: he can trade both through the broker’s native application and through third-party terminals. Both a web version and applications for computers and mobile phones are available.

In the table below I show what our top brokers provide to their clients as software.

Here it is very difficult to remove someone from the list for the title of “best broker in Russia”. I only trade in the Quik terminal and I don’t need any, not even mobile versions of Quik. Therefore, it would be wrong to remove a broker with modest software from the list.

But for yourself, you can already note what you would like to use for your trading.

For now it's decided! We leave all brokers for further struggle.

Main functions

Let's take a closer look at what each type of broker does.

Exchange

One of the most common intermediaries in our country. The fact is that access to trading on the stock exchange is provided to individuals and legal entities only through licensed brokerage companies. You will not be able to independently enter into transactions with securities, currencies, options and futures on the stock exchange.

The intermediary will help you open a brokerage account, accept an instruction from you to complete a transaction with assets and carry it out, operating with your money in the account. His reward will be commissions.

After reading, you will understand how to stop working for pennies at a job you don’t like and start LIVING truly freely and with pleasure!

There are a number of additional functions that Russian stock brokers undertake:

• consulting – they advise clients on issues of working on the stock exchange, taxation, trading software systems, etc.;
• educational – conduct webinars, organize training courses, record lessons for beginners and more;
• analytical – they make analytical reviews, make forecasts, make recommendations;
• settlement – ​​calculate and transfer taxes on income from customer transactions to the Russian budget.

Credit

This species is still less common in Russia, but in vain. Our citizens think that they themselves have a mustache. All information is on the Internet. Why would anyone overpay for intermediary services? They respect them, sign unfavorable contracts with one bank, and then move on to another. The result is a bunch of unnecessary credit cards, extortionate terms on credit agreements, including mortgages.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the Mortgage Broker company was organized in our city on the basis of the mortgage department of the city administration. For a fee, employees selected options with the best conditions for the client, helped with paperwork and obtaining a loan.

The experiment failed. There were few people willing to pay the intermediary. Although the commissions were not commercial, but very small. The company closed due to low profitability.

Services that credit intermediaries can provide:

• selection of the optimal lending option based on an analysis of the client’s solvency and bank offers;
• checking your credit history and recommendations for improving it;
• negotiations with the creditor in case of problems;
• preparation of documents for obtaining a loan, including work with insurance and appraisal companies;
• lawyer consulting.

Insurance

Acts similarly to a credit broker, only between insurance companies and policyholders:

• selection of insurer;
• analysis of insurance conditions;
• registration, conclusion and maintenance of the contract;
• preparation of documents in the event of an insured event;
• consultations.

It should be distinguished from an insurance agent who puts every effort into luring a potential client to his insurance company. The broker interacts throughout the insurance market.

Forex broker

Has a controversial reputation in society. The negative aspects are related to the fact that most investors who go through Forex intermediaries to trade currencies sooner or later lose their money.

The real Forex market is only available to large players. The cost of a transaction or lot starts from $100,000. Players who only have a few hundred or a couple thousand dollars in their investment pockets cannot get into the real Forex market. They make transactions for the purchase and sale of currency not with other participants, but with a Forex intermediary, who closes them with his capital.

Brokerage

This is a brokerage in the commercial real estate market. What does a mediator do:

• looking for tenants and buyers for office, warehouse, and retail premises;
• participates in drawing up an agreement for the lease or purchase and sale of an object;
• negotiates with the owner on the terms of the transaction;
• accompanies the transaction until its legal completion.

Further in the article we will consider the exchange intermediary, since it is he who serves as the connecting link between the investor and the exchange.

The minimum amount of money a client has in a brokerage account and commissions in the form of subscription fees

Minimum entry threshold and subscription fees

As we can see from the table below, almost all brokers have abandoned the minimum threshold for entering trading on the exchange. The minimum threshold refers to the minimum amount of money that you deposit into your brokerage account for trading.

Previously, brokers had it from 30,000 to 100,000 rubles. But competition forces us to make more flexible conditions for clients, otherwise the client will go to a competitor, and this is already a disaster for any broker.)

However, it is clear from the table “Minimum threshold for entry and subscription fees” that brokers are trying in one way or another to take some kind of subscription fee from their clients under any pretext.

Some brokers charge a fee if, as a result of trading, trading commissions for volume do not exceed a minimum threshold.

For example: You have a total of 29,000 rubles in your account. And the broker has a condition in his tariffs that if the amount in the brokerage account is less than 30,000 rubles, you must pay him, for example, 100 rubles monthly.

Others only charge if at least one transaction is made during the month. If there are no transactions, no commission is taken.

And this monthly fee feature is one of the sources of income for any broker.

Let's look at other sources of broker income. I think it’s obvious that we won’t be able to remove anyone from the list in this section either. All brokers take a monthly tribute from us, their clients, under various pretexts.

Transaction fees

Important! When buying or selling securities, the broker takes a commission in the form of a percentage of the money turnover. When trading futures contracts, there is usually a fixed amount per contract, etc.

You must understand that when trading different assets on the market and on different platforms, the methods for calculating the brokerage commission are different.

Important! We do not take into account exchange commissions. Its size is 0.01% of the operation volume. And no broker can change it. Everyone will have the same commission. (Futures have different exchange commissions. We’ll look at them briefly later in this article.)

Statement of the exchange commission from clients when trading (from the Moscow Exchange website)
When trading futures, the most accurate and correct figure about the exchange commission will be in the passport for the futures itself.

Extract from the passport of the dollar/ruble futures contract

Depository fee

There may be no fee, a percentage of capital, or a monthly fee. Very often, promotional materials for a particular tariff do not say anything about it. But this does not mean at all that it does not exist. This is simply a marketing ploy for the client’s first acquaintance with the broker.

In this regard, I liked the Kit-Finance broker. Their website has fairly simple and clear navigation.

Extract from the official website of the broker Kit-Finance

We open the information on the depository and see that everything is clearly and clearly written.

But this is not always obvious to brokers. Kit-Finance is simply handsome in this matter!

You can also look at this information for other brokers when analyzing. It is very difficult to write for each, because in some tariffs it is a separate figure, in other tariffs it is already included in the subscription fee.

Here everything needs to be calculated individually. I give an approximate diagram of how to do an analysis based on tariffs at the end of the article. You can use this as a template.

Brokerage commissions and additional payments

The brokerage commission can “eat up” the investor’s entire profit if the tariff plan is chosen incorrectly and does not correspond to the number of transactions concluded. Fierce competition in the brokerage services market makes prices quite low, but only at first glance, without going into details.

Companies ask for very low commissions, for example, 0.03 percent of the transaction. It is important to clarify whether this price includes an exchange fee, how much you will have to pay additionally for depository services and for processing transactions to transfer ownership of securities, and whether there is a separate cost for using the software and for access to real-time quotes. These additional payments are already included in the commission for some brokers, but not for others.

Brokerage account

Open

Ideal tariff for a simple investor

There is no such tariff!

This is where the difficulty lies. But don’t be discouraged, remember three parameters that will help you choose such a tariff specifically for your trading. And we have already discussed them above.

1. No monthly minimum fee
2. Low commissions for your trades
3. No depository fee

And by the way, when working through these three parameters, immediately discard super expensive tariffs with analytics or a personal broker, or super cool software platforms.

If you don't know how to trade, then none of this will help you. You'll just end up paying every month for something you can do without.

The most reliable brokers according to investment ratings

It’s no coincidence that I didn’t start the article with ratings. I'm so skeptical about ratings. After all, if you rely on them, you will have to delve into the calculations and parameters of these very ratings. Moreover, it is possible to inflate these same ratings for selfish purposes. But now that we have identified a narrow circle of brokers that are normal for work, we can look at their ratings, just in case.

Typically, a broker's reliability rating has the following symbols: AAA+, AAA, AAA-, BBB, CCC, and so on. Ideally, the higher the rating, the more reliable the broker.

Let's look at the website of the National Rating Agency to see which of our five are on this list and in what place.

And the Moscow Exchange website also has its own rating, which includes all of our five brokers.

To my surprise and not surprise, the National Agency's rating practically coincided with my analysis. So we are going with you in the right direction!

Why you can't trust offshore brokers

Offshore brokers are companies that are legally registered not in the Russian Federation, but outside its borders. These even include the Alpari broker, which I previously unknowingly recommended in several articles (but this broker used to have a license from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, but now they have lost their license).

Offshore companies cannot be trusted for two reasons. Firstly, because if they deceive you, you will have to sue them at their place of registration. That is, fly to distant islands and sue there. Naturally, you won't do this.

Secondly. “Kitchens” are often disguised as such companies. They show traders slightly incorrect quotes, causing traders to gradually lose their money.

The broker does not bring money to the market at all, that is, he does not buy any real assets with it. All funds remain with the broker and are then withdrawn offshore.

Remember

Licenses from any European regulators do not play any role at all. Who doesn't have them?

Which broker is best for a beginner? A specific case with calculations.

General selection of tariffs for me from the best brokers in Russia

What's next?

It seems that the list of brokers has been significantly reduced, but it is still not clear who to choose.

Also important is customer service and maximum availability, which includes a free hotline and the ability to resolve any issue very quickly over the phone. All four have no problems with telephone availability.

Which means, I repeat, there is no ideal broker.

Each person will have their own ideal broker. And even if you are a beginner, the selection criteria will be the same as for an experienced trader. If it is present on the Moscow Exchange, then it is already reliable.

And I give you the following recommendations:

1. You can choose one of the four brokers who remained with us after my subjective selection.
2. After determining your personal plan for developing yourself as a trader on the stock exchange, you can choose the optimal plan from any of these brokers. You don't need to go to their office to do this. You can find out by calling a financial advisor.

You don't have to stop with the first broker you call. Don't be lazy to call all four. And, having compared the optimal offer on paper, choose a suitable broker.

For example, I now trade only futures on the Derivatives Market of the Moscow Exchange, then:

1. I don't need the stock market
2. I don't need the foreign exchange market
3. But I need charts of Stock and Foreign Exchange market instruments for analysis!
4. I don't need any paid analytics or paid consulting
5. What is important to me is very powerful remote telephone support with employees who understand perfectly the problem that I can clumsily explain.
6. It is important for me to get through to the broker very quickly, and not like the Sberbank broker (you can hang on the wire for hours).
7. Fast withdrawal of money to the card is important to me
8. It is important for me to quickly receive money as a deposit to a brokerage account
9. I don't care about any programs or mobile applications. Grabs Quik.

This all, as you understand, concerns the Derivatives Market. The question may arise: “Which broker to choose for trading on the Stock market?” To do this, we slightly change the phrases in the questions posed and, using the same scheme that will be below, we look for the answer for ourselves. It's simple!

So, let's go look for the best one for me from this four! Let's calculate the commission when trading 1 futures contract, and then 20 futures contracts.

Since brokers’ websites are crazy about tariffs: everything is confusing and somehow incomprehensible, I started calling our four brokers.

I started calling the Otkritie broker’s toll-free number from about two o’clock in the afternoon Moscow time and never got through. The answering machine always says that all operators are busy.

Okay, busy so busy.

I called the broker Finam. I got through right away and asked for the tariffs I was interested in to meet my requirements to be sent to me by email.

In a couple of minutes, they found me a tariff for futures with a fee of 0.45 rubles per contract. True, there is a subscription fee for maintaining an account of 177 rubles per month.

I called the Otkritie broker again and the answering machine reported that all the specialists were busy.

I'm calling the BCS broker. I called right away. She clarified my understanding of the tariffs to ensure they were correct and chose the optimal one for myself.

I have pre-selected the “Investor” tariff for now.

I call the Otkritie broker again. Another answering machine.

Broker Otkritie is dropped from the list for the title of best broker in Russia.

Moreover, on the website I found such information on the tariffs I was interested in. The “Universal” tariff for trading futures contracts is 0.74 rubles. And this is already more expensive than the Finam broker.

I say to the Otkritie broker: “Come on, goodbye!”

According to Kit Finance everything is very clear. I didn't even have to call. All the information is very simple on the website and without complicated tariffs.

So, we have chosen more or less suitable tariffs for trading only futures on the Derivatives Market of the Moscow Exchange with the best brokers in the country.

It seems that they are all good and profitable. But this is only at first glance.

We choose a specific tariff for trading on the stock exchange from the best brokers in Russia

In order to choose the best tariff, and therefore the broker, we need to determine such a trading parameter as the number of transactions per month.

In my case, this is usually no more than 30 (even with a reserve, I take the number) transactions per month. But to choose a tariff, you need to multiply this figure by two.

Why do you need to multiply by two?

The answer is simple. Because we open any transaction and pay a commission. And then we close this deal and again pay a commission to the broker.

This means that my parameter “Number of transactions per month” is 60.

We consider the benefits of the Kit-Universal tariff of the Kit-Finance broker for my trading.

0.65*60*1=39 rubles is the entire commission to the broker for trading one futures.

0.65*60*20=780 rubles is the entire commission to the broker for trading in each of 30 open and then closed transactions with 20 futures contracts.

But!

Broker Kit-Finance has a clause in the tariff that if the total commission for a month does not exceed 200 rubles, then they will charge the missing amount from the brokerage account.

The total amount of commissions from the Kit-Finance broker when I trade 1 futures per month will be a maximum of 200 rubles. When trading 20 futures, the commission will be 780 rubles.

We consider the benefits of the “Day” tariff of the Finam broker for my trading.

This tariff includes a mandatory subscription fee for maintaining an account. It is 177 rubles.

For a transaction of one futures contract, the commission is 0.45 rubles.

What happens then?

(0.45*60)*1+177=204 rubles. When trading 1 futures.

(0.45*60)*20+177=717 rubles when trading 20 futures.

Already 4 rubles more than the Kit-Finance broker when trading 1 futures. And when trading 20 futures, it is 780-717 = 67 rubles cheaper.

But again, here it is better to look at your dynamics of the number of entries for about a month.

I took 30 entries with a reserve. In fact, I have fewer entries. You can clearly see which of these two brokers is better from this table. In my calculations, I take trading 1 futures.

Let's analyze the chain of tariffs from the BCS broker for my trading.

The BCS broker has three interesting tariffs for me when trading futures on the Moscow Exchange. If Finam only liked one tariff out of all the tariffs, Kit-Finance has only one tariff, then the BCS broker has many of them. But interesting three:

1. Tariff "Trader"
2. Tariff "Investor"
3. Tariff "InvestorPro"

Analysis of the “Trader” tariff of the BCS broker

Let’s look at the “Trader” tariff of the BCS broker. Let's look at the extract from the official website of BCS according to the tariff:

The total amount of commissions to the broker is:

(1*60)*1+199=259 rubles when trading 1 futures

(1*60)*20+199=1399 rubles when trading 20 futures

Let's look at the extract from the official website of BCS for the "Investor" tariff:

Analysis of the “Investor” tariff of the BCS broker

Important! Here you need to look not only at the amount of commissions per month for 30+30 transactions. Otherwise, it will be more difficult to understand whether the tariff is beneficial for me or not?

We calculate the total amount of commissions to the BCS broker:

3*60*1=180 rubles - with the number of transactions 30+30 per month when trading 1 futures

3*60*20=3,600 rubles when trading 30+30 per month when trading 20 futures

3*40*1=120 rubles with the number of transactions 20+20 per month when trading 1 futures

3*40*20=2400 rubles with the number of transactions 20+20 per month when trading 20 futures

3*16*1=48 rubles with the number of transactions 8+8 per month when trading 1 futures

3*16*20=960 rubles with the number of transactions 8+8 per month when trading 20 futures.

Important! I usually have about 8 transactions per month. But the figure of 960 rubles is higher than the figure of the broker Kit-Finance (780 rubles) and Finam (540 rubles)

Analysis of the "InvestorPro" tariff of the BCS broker

The huge subscription fee immediately catches your eye. And if your brokerage account is up to 900,000 rubles, then the commission for one futures contract will be as much as 5 rubles. And even if you have 5 million-10 million rubles in your account, you still spend a lot on commissions. I think I will make a more detailed comparison in a separate article, but for now this tariff loses in the ranking of the optimal tariff for futures trading.

(5*60)*1+299=599 rubles. With my number of transactions per month being 30+30, the commission turns out to be super cosmic even when trading 1 futures.

(5*60)*20+199=6199 rubles. With my number of transactions per month being 30+30, the commission turns out to be super-super cosmic when trading 20 futures.

Conclusion according to three tariffs of the BCS broker

1. According to the “Trader” tariff, the total commission per month is 259 rubles with a subscription fee for 30+30 transactions per month when trading 1 futures
2. According to the “Investor” tariff, the total commission per month is 180 rubles without a subscription fee for 30+30 transactions per month when trading 1 futures
3. According to the InvestorPro tariff, the total commission per month is 599 rubles with a subscription fee for 30+30 transactions per month when trading 1 futures

But we won’t trade one futures all our lives. While we are learning, we are trading one futures. And when we learn, we will trade 20 futures. despite the fact that I took 20 futures into account for futures with GO for approximately 5,000 rubles.

In some transactions out of these 20 settlements, the commission will be less, since the number of futures will be less due to the large GO.

Is it possible to go into the red and remain in debt to the broker?

Yes, if you trade with leverage. Watch it happen

If a broker is not working, this does not mean that prices are not moving. Prices never sleep, they are constantly in motion.

If some important event occurs over the weekend or overnight, the price may go very far from the original value. And when the broker starts working, you will see a break or gap on the chart. For example, like here.

Why is this dangerous? Let's say you opened a bearish trade at a price of 0.90162. And they placed a protective order at a price of 0.92162.

If the market suddenly went against you, you would lose 200 points. That is, let's say, 200 dollars.

But while the broker was not working, an important event occurred. Switzerland decided to let its franc float freely - it no longer kept it at the same level as the dollar. And the dollar jumped up.

What will the broker do in the morning? He will close your trade because it is unprofitable. But he will do this not at your price, because it was not on the market at all, but at the first price that will be at the beginning of trading. That is, 0.96920.

You planned to lose 200 points, but you will lose 675. 3.4 times more. Not 200 dollars, but 675.

And if you don’t have this amount of money in your account, you will go into the red. You will owe the broker.

To avoid such situations, you need to trade on the market without leverage. Read my article on this topic, where I explain what it is and why the shoulder is so dangerous.